YOUR CART

“Fit To Fight and UM PT researchers demonstrate the benefits of exercise for quality of life for those fighting cancer. This spring the UM Physical Therapy School led an introductory study on analyzing the outcomes and benefits from an organized exercise program for cancer fighters. The study concluded that ‘Subjects with cancer and cancer survivors demonstrated significant improvement in sit-to-stand and in the number of days that they report feeling healthy’.”

ABSTRACT BODY:Purpose/Hypothesis : Cancer and cancer treatment can adversely affect physical and emotional well-being. There is some evidence that exercise may be beneficial in improving function, strength, and longevity in patients with cancer. Purposes of this study were to: 1) Assess participants’ outcomes in exercise tolerance, strength, balance, function, and quality of life after an eight week program and 2) determine the appropriateness of chosen outcome measures.

Number of Subjects : The subjects were 5 women and 2 men, mean age 58.14 years, who had active cancer, ongoing treatment for cancer, or had completed treatment for cancer.

Materials/Methods : Pre and post testing consisted of; the modified Naughton treadmill test, the four stage balance test, a timed sit to stand test (STS), the CDC Health Quality of Life test (HQOL), and the Outpatient Physical Therapy Improvement in Movement Assessment Log (OPTIMAL). Examiners and exercise leaders were physical therapists, exercise physiologists, physical therapy students and exercise physiology students and were educated in the administration of the tests. The eight week program met twice weekly with group and individualized training consisting of stretching, relaxation, resistive exercise and endurance exercise. Subjects were given a membership to a local athletic club to encourage exercise between sessions.

Results : The subjects attended an average of 12 sessions (range of 8-15). There were no adverse effects of testing or exercise reported by the subjects or staff. Ordinal level data was analyzed by Repeated Measures ANOVA and the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test was used for nominal level data. There was a significant improvement in sit-to-stand (p=.028). There was a significant difference in the HQOL Symptom Module question 5; “During the last 30 days, for about how many days have you felt VERY HEALTHYAND FULL OF ENERGY?”, (p=.004) Pre-test average for question 5 was 5.3 days and post program average was 18.7 days. Six of the seven subjects improved in the Modified Naughton test. All subjects improved in most items in the OPTIMAL and HQOL tests. At the pre-test, all subjects were able to complete the 4 stage balance test without difficulty so an alternative post-test was conducted and this data was not analyzed.

Conclusions : Subjects with cancer and cancer survivors demonstrated significant improvement in sit-to-stand and in the number of days that they report feeling healthy. In this preliminary data, improvements were seen in all tests. Additional subjects will be recruited from this program that is scheduled three times per year. Outcome measures were satisfactory with the exception of the balance test, thus a different measure will be used in future testing.

Clinical Relevance : After an eight week exercise program, all subjects, including one terminally ill subject, more than doubled the number of days that they report feeling “very healthy and full of energy”. In addition to physical outcome measures, quality of life measures are important to attain a comprehensive assessment in this population.​KEYWORDS: cancer, exercise, quality of life.